and then openly resist?

There was an epoch of evasion. This covered a period of about
seventeen years, extending from 1733 to 1750. In the latter year
an act was passed by Parliament forbidding the erection of iron
works in America. The manufacture of steel was especially
interdicted. The measure which was in reality directed against
shipbuilding included a provision which forbade the felling of
pines outside of enclosures. It was thus sought by indirection
to prevent the creation of a merchant marine by the American
Colonists and to limit their commerce to British ships. This
measure like the Importation Act was also ignored and resisted.
For eleven years the Americans persisted in their usual course,
making iron, cutting pine timber and building ships, importing
molasses and rum, evading the duties, and thus getting themselves
into the category of smugglers.

It was this precise condition of affairs which led to a still
more stringent measure on the part of the home government. It
was determined in Parliament to put an end to the evasion and
resistance of the American merchants and importers with respect
to the existing laws. The customs should be collected. It was
deemed best, however, that the new measure should issue from the
judiciary.

An appeal was made to the Court of Exchequer in England for the
granting of search warrants to be issued in America by the king's
officers for the purpose of ferreting out contraband goods.
These warrants granted by the Court of Exchequer were the Writs
of Assistance, the name of which appears so frequently and with